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Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish Iranian journalist and award winning autho, discussed his recently published memoir No Friend But the Mountain: Writing From Manus Prison at the Wentworth Falls School of Performing Arts last Saturday. Mr. Boochani fled from Iran to seek refuge in Australia but was instead sent to offshore detention on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Mr. Boochani is a vocal advocate for Kurdish people and all refugees and asylum seekers. Mr. Boochani Skyped in from East Lorengu, the refugee accommodation on Manus Island where he currently resides, and received a standing ovation from audience members, before talking about his memoir and his time in detention.Read more

by Roger Grealy Kathie Herbert and Joy Connor did us proud in organising and running the afternoon around the local launch of Behrouz Boochani’s book, No Friend But The Mountains. As an interested observer I write to say what a professional group we have and what talented , hard working women Kathie and Joy are.Read more

Joy Connor and Marie Sellstrom, President of Rural Australians for Refugees, spent 2 days in Canberra meeting with politicians. They met with Russell Broadbent, sent Marise Payne a gift of Blue Mountains honey and a copy of Behrouz Boochani’s book and met with Julie Bishop. The meetings were facilitated by local member Susan Templeman.
Julie Bishop said that refugee advocates needed to lobby for more involvement by Australia in regional intercountry dialogue such as the ‘Bali Process’, if there is to be any kind of solution to forced migration. Read more

Roger Greeley and Denise Thorpe attended a fund raising lunch for RACS on Friday 19 October in Sydney.
This organisation has helped BMRSG many times when we have referred our families.
The guest of honour was Gillian Triggs who made a heartfelt appeal to the many lawyers, barristers and judges present to dig deep into their pockets for donations.
It was also the forum to launch The Power of Good People Surviving Sri Lanka’s Civil War by Para Paheer with Alison Corke.Read more

Summary and recommendation
The purpose of the Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2017 (the Bill) is to amend the Migration Act to:
1. allow the Minister to determine that an item is a ‘prohibited thing’ in relation to immigration detention facilities,
2 allow existing screening, search and seizure powers to be used in relation to prohibited things,
3 provide a power to search all areas of immigration detention facilities without a warrant, and
4 enable the use of detector dogs to search facilities and to screen detainees and other persons entering the facilities.

This post goes into the details of the Bill, the responses of the main parties and the Government’s respond to these comments.Read more

A few weeks ago two of Australia’s leading critics of successive governments’ asylum seeker policies have republished their contentious views on how to change the seemingly intractable position held by both the Government and the Opposition. Robert Manne, Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University and John Medadue, Former Secretary, Department of Immigration together with Frank Brennan SJ, Professor of Law, Australian Catholic University and Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia put forward their position in 2016.

BMRSG is posting these articles for discussion and does not endorse any position.